Head Over Heels
by kittenamos
Summary: Logan and Quinn's relationship had been going great. So, when Malcolm invites her to stay with them over the break, Quinn happily accepts, but how will Malcolm react to the idea of his son dating a science nerd? Will Logan fight to be with Quinn or crumble to his dad's wishes? (Continuing ToBecomeAClown's story "The Power of Love") Rated T for a reason
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Logan and I sat at our group's usual lunch table as we waited for our friends to show up.

"Just remember the formulas," I noted, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice as I reached over to my tray of food, which I had pushed aside, and brought a fry to my mouth.

I loved Logan, but his inability to remember simple math equations was frustrating. His final math test before spring break was tomorrow, and he was still struggling with the material. With Logan's math book opened in front of me, my boyfriend tapped his eraser against his notebook.

"This is pointless," he moaned. "I'm never going to learn this, especially in time for tomorrow!"

"Come on, Logan. You can get this," I said, trying to encourage him, but even I was starting to get tired of studying. Luckily, our friends Zoey and Chase chose that moment to show up.

"Hey guys," Zoey greeted cheerfully, laying her tray down on the surface before moving a chair out to sit down.

"What are you working on?" Chase asked, nodding at the textbook.

"Logan has an Algebra test coming up," I explained as Logan let out a groan beside me.

Logan's attitude perked up moments later when he noticed Michael and Lola heading in our direction. He reached in front of me and slammed the textbook closed. Sending me one of his legendary smirks, which lately always caused my heart rate to pick up. "How about a break?"

Before I could say anything in reply, Michael and Lola had arrived at our meeting spot.

"Can you guys believe it? Just a couple more days until spring break!" Michael exclaimed in excitement, taking a seat.

"I know!" Lola cried, practically bouncing in her seat. "I could so use the break."

"I'm assuming you have plans?" Zoey asked, tilting her head to the side as she tried not to laugh at her friend.

"Uhh, no," Lola pouted, the excitement seeming to drain from the girl's body instantly. "Just sitting at home, trying not to murder my idiot brother. What about you?"

"I'm going to the Bahamas with my family," Zoey announced to the group. A smile appeared on her face at the thought.

"You're so lucky!" Lola exclaimed. "I want to go to the Bahamas!"

"What about you?" the blonde asked, turning to her boyfriend.

Chase shrugged. "I don't have anything big planned. A couple relatives are going to be coming over to my house for a couple days though."

"That could be fun," I jumped in, picking at the fries on my plate again.

"Yeah, we'll see," Chase replied, giving me a small smile. "What about the rest of you guys?" he added, looking around at Michael, Logan, and I.

Michael shrugged, "Nothing."

All eyes then turned to me and Logan as they waited for our answer. I sent my boyfriend a smile, giving him permission to deliver the news. "My dad called me a couple weeks ago," he answered, nodding in my direction before continuing. "He said that since Quinn is the first girl I've dated for this long he really wants to meet her in person." He smiled, as I continued.

"Which means, Logan and I are going to be spending the whole break together!" I added, clearly excited about the idea.

From the start of our relationship, Logan and I hadn't spent more than twelve hours apart. As spring break had started to come closer, I had become nervous about the idea of having to spend two weeks away from him. Logan had been anxious about the separation as well, and the fact that his father was willing to have me visit for two weeks excited both of us.

I couldn't wait for the break to start!


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The last couple of days flew by and before we knew it, our Friday classes had ended, and I was back in my PCA room with my friends packing up the last of the stuff I needed for my stay with Logan.

"I should go," Lola stated, setting her luggage down by the door. "My dad is going to be here soon."

Zoey and I each headed over to give our friend a hug goodbye.

"Have fun, Lola," Zoey said as she pulled away from Lola's embrace.

"Try not to give your brother a hard time," I added, watching as she turned to pick up her bags.

"Yeah, we'll see." She turned back to grin at me before moving towards the exit. "See you in two weeks."

Zoey and I gave off final waves of farewell before turning back to our luggage.

"When are you getting picked up?" I asked Zoey over my shoulder.

"My parents are going to pick Dustin and me up early tomorrow morning and head straight for the airport," she said, placing her bag that was filled with clothes against the wall. "What about you?"

"Not sure exactly," I replied, zipping up my last bag and turned around to face my friend. "Logan called me about an hour ago. Chauncey is stuck in traffic. He said he'll call me when our ride is here."

"Then do you want to go for a walk? Maybe the coffee carts are still open."

* * *

Zoey and I were sitting at one of the tables in the lounge, drinking our coffees and talking about our plans for the break.

"Are you excited about going to Logan's place?" Zoey asked, cuddling her coffee cup between her hands.

I took a sip of my iced coffee. "I guess," I gave a slight shrug, and set my drink down on the surface.

"You guess? You seemed so excited about spending the break with your _boyfriend_." The word 'boyfriend' came out with a slight cringe. I knew my friends still weren't completely okay with my choice to date Logan, but they were trying to get passed it.

"No, I am!" I quickly added. "It's just . . . his father . . ."

Zoey eyed me as she took another drink from her cup. "You've met Malcolm before. Remember, we all went to their beach house and filmed the first episode for _Gender Defenders_ ," she stated.

I nodded, idly tracing my finger around the ridge of the lid on my drink. "I know, but that was as Logan's friend and I never really spoke to him then."

"Quinn, relax," Zoey replied, sending a small smile my way. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

"Hey, there you are!" Someone interrupted our conversation.

Zoey and I turned to the sound of the voice to see my boyfriend coming our way. I couldn't help the smile that appeared on my face at seeing him.

"The limo just got here. You ready to go?" he asked, returning my grin.

I nodded and stood up, tossing my finished cup into the trashcan behind me. Zoey stood up with me and we gave each other a hug, and Logan and Zoey spoke a quick goodbye. By the time we had finished, Chauncey was standing in the doorway.

Grabbing my hand, Logan started leading me towards the doorway. Pausing in front of Chauncey, Logan gave him my room number so he could go and retrieve my luggage. The butler simply gave us a small nod before turning and heading down the hallway in the direction of the room.

Logan and I leaned against the locked limo talking, and sneaking a kiss every now and then, as we waited for Chauncey to return to unlock the vehicle. It wasn't long before the butler came out, swinging a bag from each of his hands.

Setting the luggage down, the man reached into his pocket to pull out the car keys and pressed a button before heading around to place the bags in the trunk. Opening the door for me, Logan and I slid into the back seat and made ourselves comfortable for the two hour drive to Beverly Hills.

* * *

Arriving at the mansion that Logan had been bragging about for years, I exited the limo and gazed at the huge building in front of me. Chauncey had pulled to a stop right in front of the structure, causing me to have to tilt my head back in order to see the top. Behind me, Logan chuckled as he caught me gawking at his house.

He stepped up to my side and smirked. "What do you think?"

I turned my shocked expression towards him. "It's amazing! You live here?" I gestured towards the building. Logan just grinned at me as I turned back to look at the place he called home.

Chauncey had stepped around us to bring the first load of luggage to the front door, where a couple of maids could be seen helping him get everything inside.

Wrapping an arm around my shoulders, Logan led me inside to give me the grand tour; a huge foyer greeting us upon entry. He started by showing me around the main floor; the kitchen, game rooms, the movie theater, gym, and much, much more.

As we entered the living room, a little girl who looked to be about seven years old was seen sitting on the couch. I gave Logan a questioning look as we approached the child.

Taking his arm away from my shoulder, Logan gestured to the kid. "This is Payton, my stepsister. Payton, this is my girlfriend, Quinn."

The child had been busy playing with her dolls when we entered, but at the word 'girlfriend' she glanced up at us.

"Hi," I said, looking down at her.

"Hello," Payton replied, smiling up at us. Holding one of her dolls out towards me, she asked, "Do you want to play with me?"

Before I could respond, Logan grabbed my hand. "Not right now," he answered for me.

Glancing at him, it was hard to read his expression. Did he not like his new sister? This had to be the child of at least his sixth stepmom. Maybe he was just irritated with the fact that his dad kept bringing random woman into to the family all the time. I knew he could be a jerk at times, but it was no excuse to act rude to a little girl.

"Do you know where dad is?" Logan asked the child.

"I think he's outside by the pool with mommy," she answered, already occupied with her dolls again.

With this information, Logan turned and led me towards the back of the house. Sliding open one of the back doors, my boyfriend gently pulled me outside onto a porch that stretched most of the length of the house. Over the railing, I saw a pool down below us that was surrounded by a gate.

"Hey dad . . . Sarah," Logan greeted, looking from his father, who was lounging back in a chair, and then to his stepmom who was sitting next to him reading a magazine.

"Hi, Logan, it's nice to see you again," Sarah responded, glancing up from her reading material long enough to send him a small smile in greeting.

Turning to face me, Logan said, "Quinn, this is my dad, and my stepmom, Sarah." Then he turned to face the two adults sitting in front of us. "This is my girlfriend, Quinn," Logan said, finishing the introductions.

Wanting to make a good impression on my boyfriend's father, I walked up to Malcolm and extended a hand out to him saying, "It's very nice to meet you, Mr. Reese."

The man stared up at me with one eye closed because the sun was shining into his eyes. Squinting, he gave me a quick scan up and down. He frowned before finally replying with a "You too." Ignoring my extended hand, Malcolm closed both of his eyes and turned away from me again.

I let my hand swing down to my side, limp. What happened? Had I done something wrong? I turned around to look at Logan, hoping for an explanation as to why his father had just blown me off like that, but the look on my boyfriend's face told me that he was just as surprised and confused as I was.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

After a moment of silence, Logan took a couple steps forward and grabbed my arm, pulling me towards him. "Come on," he whispered in my ear as he looked questioningly at his father. "I'll show you the rest of the house." Logan slid his hand down my arm until he reached my hand and led me back towards the door that we had left open behind us.

I wanted to ask Logan about what had just happened, but he still seemed confused about the situation himself. Instead, I let my boyfriend lead me up an elegant staircase that had what appeared to be heart shaped designs made into the aluminum balusters. By the time we reached the top of the landing, Logan seemed to be back to his old self.

As we started to head down the hallway, I asked him about the portraits that were hanging on the walls. I recognized many of the people who were famous movie stars and a few directors.

"Each one was taken during a different movie or TV show that my dad was working on," Logan explained as he stopped in front of one with an image of his father standing next to Morgan Freeman. "He insists on framing at least one picture from everything he works on and has it hung."

"Makes sense. They're memories of his past projects," I replied and let my eyes scan the line of photos that continued farther down the hallway. "He's worked on a lot of films, hasn't he?"

Logan turned to face me, a grin on his face. "He'd have to in order to be able to afford all of this," he said, gesturing with his free hand.

While Logan continued to guide me down the hallway, I couldn't help but to glance at the images on the wall. Malcolm had met and worked side-by-side with so many famous actors and actresses, and Logan had probably met a lot of them himself. Back in Seattle, my family lived in an average, two-story house. It was one thing to watch Logan act spoiled and throw his money around at PCA, but being here – at his huge home and seeing all the maids and butlers they had working for them – it was a lot to take in.

Oblivious to the concerns growing in my head, Logan resumed the tour, pointing out the rooms reserved for the live-in staff and his father's space. There was also another game room and a second gym on this floor. Eventually, Logan got to the door that he said was to his room, and showed me inside.

A huge glass window covered the whole wall that was on the other side from the entrance. Long curtains were pulled to the side to allow natural light into the room. The other walls were painted in a pale blue with a gray carpet covered the floor. Logan's bed could be seen against the wall on our left. To the right was a TV stand with a DVD player and a couple gaming systems placed on the shelving spaces provided by the table. On top of the table was the latest TV model, which I knew had only entered stores a couple weeks ago.

Trying to ignore the growing lump in my stomach, I turned to face my boyfriend. "What room am I going to be staying in?"

Heading back into the hallway, Logan gestured to the door right next to his as we approached it. "You will be staying here," he announced and pushed the door open, letting me walk in ahead of him.

The guest room was almost identical to Logan's, the only differences being that the walls in this room were painted in purple and the TV set wasn't the brand new system, but it still appeared expensive to my eyes. The room was equipped with a matching set of elegant furniture and my bags were already sitting on the floor by the end of the bed.

* * *

A couple hours had passed, and I had unpacked all of my stuff into the dressers in my luxurious guest room before rejoining Logan in his bedroom. The TV was on, but very little of our time had been spent watching it. My earlier insecurities had seemed to have disappeared. Logan always seemed to have a way of making me feel better, even when he didn't know something was wrong. A knock at the door was what finally caused us to pull away from each other's lips.

"Come in," Logan called. I could tell he was slightly annoyed that someone had broken our make-out session.

The door opened to reveal Chauncey standing on the other side. "Dinner is ready," he announced. Without waiting for a response, the man turned and headed back the way he had come.

Logan turned back to me. "Hungry?"

I nodded, smiling to myself as I pulled away from my boyfriend's arms.

We headed down the stairs to the kitchen to find Malcolm, Sarah, and Payton already sitting around the table. Malcolm was seated at the head of the rectangular shaped table, with Sarah sitting to his right, and Payton next to her. That left two empty seats towards Malcolm's left, which were shortly occupied by Logan and myself.

An empty plate was placed in front of each of us, with the selection of entrees arranged in the middle of the table. A slightly uncomfortable silence followed as we all began to fill our plates with food.

"So, Quinn," Malcolm began, breaking the silence as he worked on cutting his meat and glancing over at me from time-to-time, "Where do you live?"

"I live in Seattle with my parents and Otis when I'm not at PCA," I replied, scooping some mashed potatoes on to my plate.

"Otis?" he questioned.

I looked over at him. "He's an alpaca. My parents gave him to me as a present for my 10th birthday."

"Mmhmm . . ." he mumbled around his food as he studied me with his eyes. "A pet alpaca?"

I simply shrugged at this and went back to my food. The idea of having an alpaca for a pet always seemed like a weird idea to other people.

Letting it go, Malcolm continued, "I've heard from Logan that you are one of the smartest people at PCA."

"Well, I don't know about the 'smartest', but . . ." I started to reply, but was interrupted by Logan.

"Yes you are!" he exclaimed. "You were offered a scholarship to college at the age of fifteen."

"Wow," Malcolm said, sounding legitimately impressed. "Why didn't you go?"

"Well, I wanted to stay with my friends, and I wanted to graduate high school at eighteen, not be in my junior year of college," I explained.

"That was a stupid decision," Malcolm mumbled as he turned back to his food, but was said clearly enough that everyone at the table heard him.

Next to me, Logan had paused in the middle of putting more food on his plate. "Yeah, well . . . if she went to college then we never would have started dating." He sent a smile of encouragement in my direction.

"And that would have been a bad thing?" Malcolm questioned.

"Dad!" Logan scolded.

I could feel tears threatening behind my eyes and I tried to force them back.

Feeling the tension growing in the room, Sarah attempted to get the conversation back on track. "Quinn," she asked, getting my attention. "Do you have any idea what you would like to major in?"

Thankful for the opportunity to speak to someone else for a little while, I said, "Um, yeah. I'm really into science and I like to invent things. I'm hoping to get to do something involving science in my career."

Malcolm paused with his fork halfway to his mouth. Lowering the silverware, he sent a look of confusion and disappointment towards his son. "You're dating a science nerd?"

I couldn't take it anymore. I didn't want to sit here and be talked about like this. From the second I arrived here, I realized how different my life really was from Logan's. We were aware of our physical differences, but we haven't thought much about it since becoming a couple. Yet, Malcolm was able to sense it the moment he laid eyes on me. It didn't sound like Logan's father was going to approve of me as his son's girlfriend, and the realization of this made me feel sick.

Leaving my plate of food half eaten, I pushed my chair back from the table and hurried out of the kitchen. I could hear Logan calling me, but I ignored him as I headed towards the staircase. The tears that I had tried to fight off were now running down my cheeks.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

As a couple of tears escaped down my cheeks, I stumbled my way back up the staircase.

My head felt like it was spinning from everything that had occurred since arriving at the Reese's mansion. Was that really only this morning?

Making it to the top of the stairs, I glanced down the long hallway that stretched out in front of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a couple of the framed photos of Malcolm standing with movie stars, and felt my vision start to blur as more tears clouded my vision. The photos just reminded me of how out-of-place I was here. The idea of having to walk past all of those images showcasing Malcolm's accomplishments made me feel dizzy. Instead, I held onto the banister for balance as I turned around and moved to take a seat at the top of the stairs.

I was still having a hard time understanding why Malcolm had blown me off when I had first arrived here. Logan had made it sound like his father was very excited about meeting me. From what I had experienced so far, I was not getting that impression.

Why had Logan's father disregarded me so quickly? Was it something I said? How I acted? Maybe it was how I dressed.

I could understand maybe a slight irritation about the fact that I am a nerd. Logan and his dad are rich, live in a huge house, and probably have the press and others constantly watching them. The idea of Malcolm being worried about how this would affect him and his son's image with the public may be a reason for some concern, but he seemed to have a problem with me even before that was brought to his attention.

The sound of footsteps heading in my direction caused me to look up to see my boyfriend moving briskly towards the bottom of the staircase. Reaching the steps, he paused for a second as his eyes made contact with mine. Taking the stairs two at a time, he made his way up to me. Sitting down beside me, he quickly placed his arm around my shoulders, bringing me close to his side.

"Are you okay?" he whispered in my hair.

I buried my face into his shoulder and shook my head, new tears appearing in my eyes. "I shouldn't have come here," I moaned.

"Don't say that," he replied soothingly.

I pulled away from his shoulder to look up at his face. "I don't get it! Why is he treating me like this?" Logan brought his hand up to my face to wipe my tears away as he listened to me complain. "Did I do something wrong?"

He quickly shook his head. "You didn't do anything wrong. I . . ." he let out a small sigh before continuing. "I don't know why my dad's being such a jerk, and I'm sorry that he is . . . but I'm glad that you're here, and I don't want you to regret coming."

After a short pause, I groaned and looked down at my lap. "It doesn't sound like he's going to approve of our relationship."

I felt Logan shrug his shoulders next to me. "I don't care about that."

My head snapped back up to look at him, astonished at this news.

A smile appeared on his face at my expression of shock. "Really, Quinn." He moved a strand of hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear. "We knew that the students at PCA would have a lot to say about our relationship – not all of it good." I rolled my eyes at this, but let him continue without interrupting. "So my dad is one of those people too. Who cares?"

"I do!" I cried. "He's your father, Logan. I don't want him disapproving our relationship."

Seeing the seriousness in my eyes, Logan's expression softened and he leaned down to kiss the top of my head. "Okay, you're right," he said, pulling away again to look down at me. "I'll talk to my dad tomorrow and find out what his problem is."

I raised an eyebrow. "Tomorrow?"

He nodded slowly before leaning forward to rest his forehead against mine. He then moved a hand up and used his thumb to gently rub my cheek. "Right now, why don't we head back down to my room? Get a movie started?" he questioned.

I smiled at the invitation and nodded my head.

Removing his arm from around my shoulders, Logan pushed himself to his feet before turning back to hold out his hand to help me up.

As we turned to head down the seemingly endless hallway, I couldn't help but glance at the photos up on the wall before turning to look down at my hand that was interlocked with my boyfriend's.

I wasn't sure if having Logan talk to his father about his behavior would fix anything or not, but I desperately wanted to believe that Logan could make this all better.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The next morning, I awoke to the bright, California sun shining through the huge glass windows that were located to my left. I sat up in bed and looked around at the huge bedroom I had been given for my stay here, and couldn't help but smile.

Most of my worries from yesterday seemed to have vanished – at least for the moment. I knew Logan cared about me. In the end, I figured it really doesn't matter how things play out when Logan talks to his father. Logan had told me that he didn't care how his father felt about me and I believe him, but I was still anxious about having to face Malcolm again today.

As I crawled out of bed to get ready for the day, I couldn't help but think that everything was going to turn out okay.

* * *

Making it to the bottom of the stairs, I headed in the direction of the kitchen to get something to eat for breakfast. Entering the room, I spotted Malcolm sitting on one of the chairs around the island. A half-eaten plate of eggs and bacon was set on the surface in front of him.

His stepdaughter, Payton, was sitting to his right. The chairs they were sitting on were tall with long legs. This left the little girl to sit with her legs dangling almost two feet off the floor. I noticed the child was swinging her legs happily back and forth as she worked on cleaning her plate.

Hoping to start over from yesterday, I let the smile return to my face as I approached the two. "Good morning," I announced, taking the open seat on the other side of Payton.

"Good morning," she greeted before turning back to her plate, while Malcolm didn't even look up.

Trying not to let him ruin my good mood, I thanked the chef as he set a plate of food in front of me and began to eat. As I focused on my food, I could hear Malcolm and Payton talking next to me. What really caught me off guard was how different Malcolm's attitude was when interacting with his stepdaughter verses conversing with me. He seemed to care a lot more about his new wife's child then he did about his biological son's girlfriend. Listening to them talking and laughing right beside me, I felt a tightness in my chest as I realized that this man would probably never treat me as openly as he did this little girl.

Several minutes passed like this, before Payton pushed her now empty plate towards the other side of the counter so the chef could take it to the sink.

"Can I go watch TV now?" she asked, turning towards Malcolm.

The man smiled down at her and nodded. Beaming, the child jumped down from her chair and sprinted out of the room.

Moments later, the sound of voices coming from the television in the living room could be heard. The sounds were muffled, so I couldn't tell what it was that the child was watching.

Malcolm and I sat in silence for a couple of minutes before he suddenly spoke up. "Sleep well?"

I looked up at him in shock. Last night, there seemed to have been a constant sound of hostility or irritation in his voice when he spoke to me. I didn't hear any of this in his voice now.

Swallowing the eggs that were in my mouth, I nodded. "Yes. Thank you for letting me stay here over spring break."

Maybe he woke up this morning feeling better about the situation. Was he going to give me a chance to prove to him that I was good for his son?

He took a bite out of his bacon. Speaking around the food in his mouth, he said, "How did your relationship with my son even start?"

A paused as I heard the annoyance start to appear in his voice again.

"We didn't plan on it," I started hesitantly. "It just . . . kind of happened." I felt his eyes on me, so I continued. "At the time, my ex had broken up with me and I was taking it really hard. Logan was passing by me on campus when he saw that I was upset and stopped to talk to me."

Hearing the clank of his silverware hitting his plate, I looked over to see him pushing his dishes away from him. Turning to face me, I saw a look mixed with both resentment and determination.

"Tell me the truth," he stated, staring right at me. The stern look in his eyes made me want to disappear. "Why are you dating my son?"

I stared back at him for a moment trying to understand what he was asking me. Why was I dating Logan?

Sure, Logan could be a jerk and uncaring about other people, but there was another side to him as well. Logan had the ability to be thoughtful and romantic when he wanted to be, and it made me feel special and loved knowing that I was the only one that was allowed to see that side of him.

"I like Logan and he cares about me . . ." I tried to explain, but was interrupted by my boyfriend's father.

"Don't lie to me!" he snapped, causing me to jump slightly in my seat in surprise. "You don't care about my son at all. You're using him."

"Using him?" I was so confused. What was Malcolm talking about? How could I be using his son?

"I'm sure you know that my son and I have over a billion dollars in our name. I've warned Logan before to be careful when dating. It can be hard to tell when someone truly cares about you or is just using you for their own personal gain."

I desperately shook my head back and forth. "I don't care about your wealth. I've never asked Logan for money . . ." I tried to defend myself, but again I was interrupted.

"You said that you were a scientist. An inventor? All the equipment you need for your inventions can't be cheap."

My voice quivered slightly as I continued. "I get an allowance from my parents every month, and the science teachers at PCA let me use their supplies if I need it. I don't need your money to pay for anything," I said, desperately wanting this man to know that I was not simply dating his son in order to get at his fortune.

"Dad!"

Spinning around in my chair, I saw an infuriated Logan heading in our direction. He stopped right behind my chair.

"Son – " Malcolm tried to speak, but Logan didn't let him finish his sentence.

" – I want to speak to you in your office. Now!" Logan stated, glaring at his father.

Without another word, Malcolm stood up from his seat and made his way out of the kitchen. Before following his father out into the hallway, Logan came around to my side to check on me.

Terrified that my boyfriend would start to think that I was using him, I felt my eyes began to water and I grabbed ahold of his shirt in my fist. "Logan . . ."

The boy simply leaned in to leave a kiss on my forehead, and told me that he would come back to the kitchen to see me after he talked to his father. He then turned to head back out to the hallway, following after the man.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Logan had to hurry in order to catch up with his father. Just as the man turned to enter his home office, Logan slowed down to make the right turn behind him and slammed the door in anger.

His father's home office hadn't changed at all in the last decade. The walls where still painted in a dark navy blue. A cabinet system was placed along the wall to the left where Malcolm kept most of his paper work, movie scripts, and random books. Placed on the floor in the center of the room was a dark gray carpet and a black grand style office desk sat on top of it.

"I can't believe you!" he scolded his father. Malcolm avoided eye contact with his son until he had taken a seat behind his desk.

"What did I do?" the man hissed back.

"What did you do?! You're being mean to my girlfriend. You're completely disrespecting her. You're embarrassing me."

"Logan, calm down," Malcolm said in a stern voice.

"Calm down?!" Logan practically screamed as he leaned forward, slamming his hands onto the desk. "You just accused my girlfriend of being a gold digger when she hasn't even once asked me for money. I can't believe you would just assume something like that!"

"Logan, I'm sorry. It's not my fault that your girlfriend is a freak. I don't know how she has managed to squeeze her way into your life, but I'm sure that girl is after something."

Logan was astonished. He couldn't believe his father was calling his girlfriend a freak.

"She isn't a freak, and I don't even care what you think," Logan cried, adding in some hand gestures to farther express how angry he was.

"Logan, just listen to me. I care about you, and I just want what's best for you. I don't think Lynn is the best for you," Malcolm tried to explain to his son.

"Quinn! Her name is Quinn, dad and you're not even giving her a chance."

Logan's dad sighed, but continued, "Maybe you should take a break, give other girls a shot, just for a while."

"Other girls?" Logan let out in a sigh of his own. "What other girls? I've already dated most of the girls at PCA, and I don't care about any of them. I care about Quinn! Why can't you see that?"

"What about a girl in Beverly Hills?" his father asked, the expression on his face changed as he moved to sit up straighter in his chair. The change in his father told Logan that an idea had come to him, and a shiver ran up his spine at what this could mean for him and Quinn. "A family moved in a couple months ago to a house just down the street. They have a teenage girl about your age. She's pretty and . . ."

"Not interested," Logan stated firmly, sending a warning glare at this father.

Ignoring his son's response, Malcolm started to rummage in the drawers of his desk before pulling out a small black book. Logan instantly recognized it as his father's address book.

"Dad!" Logan tried to protest as his father opened the cover and started to flip through the pages.

"Look, we'll just invite the family over for dinner tonight and give you a chance to meet the young woman."

"And then what?!"

By now, Malcolm had found the page he was looking for and reached to pick up the phone that was lying on his desk. "Let's just see how tonight goes."

Logan stood in shock as he watched his father start to dial a number. The only thing that kept him from reaching across the desk to pry the phone from his dad's hand was the thought of his father completely forbidding him from seeing Quinn at all. Since his girlfriend lived in a different state, all his dad would have to do is transfer him to a different school, and he might never see her again.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

I had spent hours rummaging through all of the clothes I had brought with me to California, trying to find something that would be good to wear for tonight. Eventually, I decided on a dark blue sundress. The dress ended just a few inches above my knees. Taking a deep breath, I studied myself in the full-length mirror that was available in my guest room.

Maia Anderson and her family are supposed to be joining us tonight, and I was a nervous wreck. I was told that Maia was the daughter of a rich Beverly Hills family that Malcolm had invited over for dinner. Malcolm claimed that the invitation was extended to the family so that he could work out a business deal for his next movie; which might be true, but I had a feeling Malcolm had something more in mind for tonight than just mere business.

Logan obviously knew something that he wasn't telling me. The look in his eyes when he had come back from his 'little talk' with his dad conveyed to me that things had not gone as planned.

Whatever was going on, I was convinced that I had to make a good impression on this family, but considering how things had been going with Logan's father, I wasn't too confident in my ability to do that.

A sudden knock at the door caused me to jump in surprise. "Come in," I called, embarrassed to hear my voice shake slightly.

The door opened to reveal Logan, who was still dressed in the t-shirt and shorts that he had been wearing all day. Obviously, he didn't feel the need to dress up this evening.

"The Anderson's just pulled up." I was alarmed to hear the tension in his voice. The apprehension in his eyes seemed to wash away as he gazed at me, and he even managed a small smile. "You look great."

I tried to smile back as I walked over to him. "Thanks."

He leaned in to place a soft kiss on my cheek before taking my hand and we silently started to head down the hallway towards the stairs.

We were halfway down the staircase when the butler opened the front door to let in the dinner guests. Logan's father, stepmother, and new sister stood a couple feet from the door to greet the family as they entered the foyer.

"Martin, good to see you again," Malcolm said, reaching out his hand to shake the man's hand, and then moved on to the woman who must have been his wife. "Connie, how have you been?"

The Anderson's greeted both Malcolm and Sarah in turn before all four of them turned as one to head towards the kitchen to continue their conversation.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Logan and I headed towards Payton who was still standing by the open door, staring outside. Following her eyes, I saw who I assumed was Maia heading up the stairs towards the entrance.

The girl's long, blonde hair hung in waves that flowed down past her shoulders. She was wearing a sundress of her own; in contrast to my dark blue dress, she wore a dark red one that seemed to help bring out her brown eyes. The way the young woman strolled into the mansion, she seemed to radiate with self-confidence. Her full lips, narrow jaw, and high cheekbones probably only helped her self-image. The woman was beautiful.

Glancing at Logan next to me, I tried to determine what he was thinking. Seeing the look of awe on his face, I felt my body go numb.

As the woman made it inside, she headed straight for Logan and extended her hand. "Hi, I'm Maia."

Logan had to let go of my hand in order to return the greeting. "Logan," he acknowledged. He then gestured to Payton and I as he introduced us.

A short silence followed as Logan continued to take in Maia's features, and the blonde sent him a shy smile in return.

"Umm, Quinn. Why don't you and Payton go ahead to the kitchen?" he asked, not taking his eyes off of Maia.

I stared at him in shock. He wanted me to leave? What could he possibly want with this girl that he didn't want me around for? Only one answer came to my mind, and I didn't like it at all.

Seeming to sense my discomfort, Logan finally turned his eyes away from the blonde beauty to look at me. Reaching for my hand again, he gave it a light squeeze. "I won't be long."

Still apprehensive about what was going to happen after we left, I hesitantly moved around my boyfriend to place a hand on Payton's shoulder and led her out of the foyer.

* * *

Logan watched his girlfriend disappear down the hallway before turning back to Maia.

His dad hadn't been lying when he said the girl was pretty. Her wavy, blonde hair came down past her shoulders framing her face perfectly, and her bright brown eyes almost seemed to sparkle as she stared back at him. Her dark red dress was a bit sexual with its thin shoulder straps, a low neckline that presented some cleavage, and showed off her long legs. Logan had to admit that the young woman was gorgeous, but there was only one problem; she wasn't Quinn.

"Do you know why my dad invited your family here tonight?"

Maia shifted her weight to her right leg. "Yeah, your father thought you might be interested in meeting me," she replied in a seductive tone.

Logan frowned in response. "Listen, I don't know what exactly you were told, but I'm not looking for a relationship right now."

The girl simply shrugged. "Who said anything about a relationship?"

He didn't need to be a genius to know where her mind was heading. "No . . . I mean, I already have a girlfriend."

This news seemed to surprise her. "What?"

Logan gestured over his shoulder before continuing, "The girl that was just here; Quinn. She's my girlfriend."

"B-but," the young woman stuttered, "your father talked to my dad. He said you were looking for a girl to hang out with."

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Do you really think I need my dad's help to get girls? Trust me, I've done fine on my own."

Maia shook her head, still confused. "Then why did your dad call us and tell us to come over today?"

Logan sighed before going on. "My dad doesn't approve of Quinn. He was hoping that if I met you, I would dump her, but . . . he just doesn't understand."

Maia stared at him with her piercing brown eyes. "You love her?"

A smile grew across Logan's face as he thought about Quinn, and he nodded his head. "Yeah, I love her a lot."

The smirk returned to Maia's face. "Then I guess your father is just gonna have to get used to her, huh?" She started to move past Logan to head in the direction that the others had went, but then stopped to turn back to him. "Quinn's lucky to have you."

Logan stared at her. "What do you mean?"

Maia shrugged and shook her head back and forth slowly, as a look of pride flashed across her beautiful face. "Not many guys have been able to say no to me."

* * *

As the adults gathered around the kitchen table, Payton and I took a seat at the island to talk.

"Did you see the way Logan was staring at that blonde girl?" Payton asked, her eyes glowing in amazement. "I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head!" she giggled.

Folding my arms against the surface of the island, I did my best to tune out the seven-year-old and the chitchat going on around the nearby table, as I tried to clear my mind.

I didn't want to think about it, but the images of Logan's face when he had first laid eyes on Maia kept circling around in my head. The fact that Logan wasn't able to take his eyes off of her meant that he was clearly attracted to her . . . What guy wouldn't be? She was stunning.

What were they doing right now? Why did Logan want me to leave him alone with her?

An image suddenly flashed into my head of Logan pushing Maia up against a wall . . . his lips leaving a travel of kisses along her neck as he continued up to her jawline, making his way to her lips . . . his hands roaming over her body . . .

Squeezing my eyes tightly shut, I rested my forehead on top of my arms and tried to will the thought away. It wasn't long before I felt a small hand touch my shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

Lifting my head, I saw Payton staring at me with concern. Before I could reply, I spotted Maia walking into the kitchen with my boyfriend not far behind her.

As Maia headed over towards her parents, I sensed Payton jumping down from her stool and heading over to join them. Payton's concern over me seemed to have vanished instantly at the sight of her new friend. Logan, on the other hand, headed over to join me at the island.

Quickly turning around in my seat, I lowered my eyes so I was staring down at the surface. Desperate for something else to focus on, I began to use my finger to trace the black and gray designs displayed in the granite.

Sensing Logan getting into the seat that Payton had just vacated, I waited until he was settled before speaking up. "What happened?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Logan's body stiffen for a moment. "What do you mean?"

I slowly raised my head to look over at my boyfriend. By now, my eyes were starting to water. "You told me to leave. You wanted to be alone with her. Why?" A couple tears started to slide down my cheeks.

"I just wanted to talk to her," he stated, apparently perplexed as to why I was so upset with him.

I shook my head, letting him know that I didn't believe him. "I saw the way you looked at her. You couldn't take your eyes off of her."

"Quinn . . ."

"Don't lie to me!" I stated firmly, but managed to keep my voice low enough so that the Anderson's and Malcolm couldn't hear.

"I'm not lying," Logan whispered back, and gently placed his hand on my arm to try and calm me down. "We just talked."

"Yeah, right," I sobbed, turning my eyes away from him.

There was a short pause and then, "You think I kissed her?"

I snapped my head up and glared at him. "Didn't you?"

"No, of course not," he stated firmly, bringing his other hand up to cup my cheek. "Quinn, I wouldn't do that to you!"

Staring into Logan's eyes, I desperately wanted to believe him, but my mind was now filled with memories of him dating girl after girl. Several were later seen crying because this boy had broken their heart in one-way or another. Many of his past 'girlfriends' caught him cheating on them with other girls.

My friends tried to warn me, telling me that Logan couldn't be trusted. That I would end up being just another girl on his list; another girl that he made feel special and then discarded in order to move on to his next conquest.

How could I have let myself get caught up with this guy? I had seen him move from one relationship to the next for years not caring who he hurt along the way, and yet I had thought that he would change for me. How could I have been so stupid?

Swiveling around in my seat, I forced Logan's hands off of me, and placed my feet back onto the floor. "Just leave me alone," I mumbled under my breath, before hurrying out of the room and away from the boy that I had broken my heart.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

As Logan watched Quinn hurry out of the kitchen, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. The voices from the nearby table seemed to have dissolved into muffled sounds that began to vibrate in his head. He knew he should go after her, but his body had gone numb and he couldn't feel his legs.

Was this it? Was Quinn going to break up with him over this?

Cheat on Quinn? Logan knew that he could never hurt her like that . . . would never, but she thought he did. How could she think that? After everything they had been through together, how could she think that he would hurt her like that? Cheating was something he did in the past to girls he didn't care about. Quinn was different. Quinn meant so much to him. He couldn't see himself without her.

The pain in Logan's chest increased as he considered the possibility of Quinn wanting to end their relationship. He couldn't lose Quinn. Not like this – over a misunderstanding. There had to be something he could do to fix this.

As if in a daze, Logan managed to get himself into a standing position. On shaky legs, he made his way out into the hallway, hoping that Quinn would still be there, but it was empty.

"Logan?"

Spinning around, Logan found Maia strolling in his direction.

"Are you okay?"

Okay? The girl he loved more than anything in the world was upset with him because he didn't tell her why his father had invited the Anderson's over for tonight. Quinn was already feeling insecure and fearful over how his father was treating her. He had been trying to avoid having Quinn's self-confidence crushed even more than it already was, but if he had just told Quinn how much he cared about her and that he was going to tell the young woman that showed up that nothing was going to happen between them, then none of this would be occurring right now. No . . . he was far from okay . . . and the cause for his current situation was standing right in front of him.

Locking eyes with the blonde beauty, Logan felt his panic over Quinn vanish, while anger instantly took its place.

Clenching his jaw, Logan tensely shook his head back and forth. Pointing an accusing finger at her, he said, "This is your fault."

Maia blinked at him, uncomprehendingly. "What's my fault? What happened?"

"Everything was going great between me and Quinn! Then my dad invited you over, and now Quinn thinks I cheated on her."

"What?" Maia stared back at him in shock.

"She doesn't understand why I sent her away when I talked to you. The only explanation that she can come up with is that I wanted to be alone with you. She thinks I kissed you."

"But we didn't," she stated firmly.

"Yeah, I know that, but Quinn . . ." Logan eyes strayed away from Maia's face as he felt his anger start to evaporate from his body, despair now swallowing him up.

There was short pause, and then, "Is there anything I can do? Maybe I could talk to her . . ."

Logan considered this for a second before shaking his head. "You're probably the last person she wants to see right now."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. I need to try and fix this myself."

* * *

Standing in front of the closed door that led into Quinn's guest room, Logan tried to get up the courage to knock. She was obviously still going to be pissed at him and he wasn't sure if he was ready to be yelled at, especially when he knew he didn't do anything to deserve it. The alternative though was having Quinn walk out of his life altogether.

His heart ached at the thought.

Taking a deep breath, Logan knocked three times on the door and took a step back to wait, hoping she wouldn't have her zap watch on her.

"Who is it?" he heard a muffled voice speak from the other side of the door. He could still hear the tears in her voice, and knowing that he could have done something to prevent her pain made his heart sink.

"Quinn, it's me," he replied softly, hoping to convince her to open the door. "Can I come in?"

"Go away," she sobbed.

"Please, baby," he cooed. "Just give me a chance to explain."

To his relief, after a short pause he heard the sound of footsteps slowly approaching the door from the other side. Moments later the door gradually swung open to reveal Quinn's tear stained face and red eyes. She was no longer wearing the blue sundress that she had been sporting just minutes ago. Ridding herself of the dress, she had slipped into a pair of green, loose fitting sleeping pants and one of his old dark purple t-shirts that had the sleeves cut off. The shirt was slightly big on her, causing it to look baggy against her thin frame. Logan had almost forgotten that he had given it to her. The fact that she was wearing his t-shirt gave him hope that everything was going to be okay between them.

Taking a step back, Quinn let him enter the room before closing the door behind them. By the time he had turned around to face her, Quinn had placed one of her hands on her hip and had shifted her weight to one side, waiting for him to speak.

"Look, I know your upset," he started, "but I didn't kiss Maia." Quinn narrowed her eyes at him, but didn't say anything so he continued. "I can't believe you would even think that I would do something like that to you."

"Before we started dating, I saw you going out with multiple girls every week. When this girl first showed up here, you couldn't take your eyes off of her, and then you ask me to leave the room. What am I supposed to think?" she questioned.

"I know I have been a jerk in the past – jumping from girl to girl, not caring about anyone's feelings . . . but you changed that." He let out a sigh before going on. "My dad invited the Anderson's over tonight because he wanted me to meet Maia. Apparently, Maia is the type of girl my dad approves of. He was hoping that if I met her, I would end things with you," he explained. Taking a step towards his girlfriend, he took one of her hands in his. "But that's not going to happen. Quinn . . . I love you. I don't care about Maia. I don't want anyone else. I just want to be with you."

Logan could still see some doubt painted in her dark brown eyes. "If you didn't kiss Maia, then why did I have to leave you alone with her?" she asked as a couple fresh tears started to make their way down her cheeks. Bringing a hand up, Logan quickly wiped them away.

"Because Maia was expecting something to happen between me and her tonight. I just wanted to have the chance to tell her that I wasn't interested in her like that before she tried something in front of you."

Still holding Quinn's hand, Logan could feel her muscles start to relax and the look in her eyes softened. "Why didn't you just tell me this before?"

"Because I saw how my dad was already making you feel," he explained. "Quinn . . . you've only been here for a couple of days and you're already starting to doubt yourself. I can tell that you don't feel like you belong here, and that just being here is kind of overwhelming for you."

She looked at him in surprise. "You knew that?"

Logan smirked at her. "You are becoming very easy for me to read. I can sense a lot of what you are feeling," he noted before turning back to the topic at hand. "Considering how my dad has been treating you since you got here, I knew that if I told you the truth about why my dad had invited the Anderson's over, it would just give you something else to worry about." He shrugged. "I thought this was something that I could deal with myself without having to get you upset about it."

To Logan's relief, he saw a shy smile appear on Quinn's face and he knew that he was in the clear.

"Well, that was very considerate of you," she replied, "but seeing as to what has happened so far, I don't think your father is just going to give up on trying to separate us. If we're going to get through this, I need to be able to trust you. If you find out that your dad is planning something else, you need to tell me so I know what's going on."

He nodded in agreement. "You're right. From now on, I will tell you everything that's happening." He paused before adding, "But you need to talk to me too. If my dad says something to you – something that upsets you, threatens you somehow – you need to tell me right away." She nodded in agreement.

"Good. Now that that's settled . . ." he whispered, sending her another smirk. Logan leaned in closer to Quinn so that their foreheads were just inches about. Letting go of her hand, he moved it up to her shoulder and easily slid two fingers under the muscle t-shirt, allowing his fingers to rest against her skin. "Have I ever told you how hot you look in my clothes?"

Quinn grinned up at him. "Do I?" she questioned, playing along.

Logan's smile grew. "Oh, definitely," he moaned, capturing her lips for a passionate kiss, and began to slowly back her up until he was holding her against the wall. They continued to make out for a while, only pulling away when they needed air. As Logan waited for her to catch her breath, he moved down to leave a trail of kisses along her neck and jawline.

As Logan's lips moved along her skin, he could feel her pulse quickening and knew that she was enjoying what he was doing. It wasn't long before he felt Quinn's hands moving around his waist. At first he ignored her touches, as he was too focused on what he was doing, but then he felt her start to tug at the end of his t-shirt. Getting the message, Logan pulled away from her just long enough to rid himself of the clothing. As he went back to work at her neck, he felt Quinn's hands against his torso, exploring the new surface. He couldn't help but moan at the feeling of her hands tracing his abs.

Eventually, Logan's hands started to wander under her t-shirt. Pulling back, he sent a questioning look into Quinn's eyes. He knew that Quinn was a virgin and didn't want to push her if she wasn't ready, but she smiled back at him and nodded encouragingly, giving him permission to continue. Slipping the t-shirt over her head, he let the fabric fall to the ground and smiled when he noticed that she wasn't wearing a bra. Leaning down, Logan began to leave a trail of kisses down from her neck and slowly headed towards one of her breasts. Reaching his destination, he placed the nipple in his mouth and sucked softly on it while placing a hand over the other, squeezing it gently. These actions caused Quinn to moan and squirm in pleasure against the wall.

When he was finished, he came back up to kiss her lips. When they pulled away, he looked into her dark brown eyes; the prettiest eyes he had ever seen, and cupped her cheek. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Quinn's eyes seemed to sparkle as she nodded her head. "I'm sure."

With that, Logan leaned in to once again capture her lips with his. Placing his hands under her butt, he lifted her up and Quinn wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms instantly found their place around his shoulders. Not breaking the kiss, Logan carried his girlfriend over to the guest bed, planning to show her just how much he truly loved her.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

I felt someone lightly brushing a hand through my hair, and I opened my eyes to see Logan's smiling face staring back at me.

"Good morning, beautiful."

As memories of last night flooded back to me, I sent a shy smile back to my boyfriend. "Good morning."

He slowly leaned forward and left a soft kiss on my forehead. "How are you feeling?" he asked, tickling my ear.

"Fine," I whispered back. My grin faltered as I thought more about what had happened yesterday. Parts of what we had done had felt incredible. I could still remember the tingly sensations that had shivered through my body as his hands touched me, and the feeling of his lips as they roamed over my skin. However, other parts had been slightly painful and felt awkward to perform. "Logan . . . about last night . . ."

I heard him groan in annoyance against my neck. "You're doing it again, aren't you?"

I blinked in confusion. "Doing what?"

Leaving his hand in my hair, he pulled away from my neck to look at me. "You're doubting yourself."

I opened my mouth to respond, but couldn't think of anything to say.

"Quinn, last night was amazing."

The grin slowly grew on my face again. "Really?"

"God, Quinn," he moaned, letting his thumb brush gently against my temple, "you can't let my dad get into your head. You're perfect. My dad's an idiot for not being able to see that. It may take him sometime, but I'm sure he will come around eventually. In the meantime, you can't take everything he says to heart." He paused, before adding, "And last night was great. I –"

Leaning forward, I pressed my lips against his for a quick kiss, shutting him up instantly. Pulling away from his mouth, I moved closer to his still naked body. I rested my forehead against his chest, wanting to enjoy this moment for a little longer before having to get up to face the day. Logan's arm snaked around my shoulder pulling me even closer to him.

Logan may think that his father would grow to like me, but I knew better. Whatever his reason was for disapproving of me, it wasn't just going to go away. His father had tried to push another girl in between us, and his plan had almost worked. I knew that my fight against Malcolm to stay with Logan wasn't anywhere close to being over. He was going to find another way to break us up.

Desperately wanting to block out these thoughts, I closed my eyes and focused on the sound of boyfriend's heartbeat.

* * *

Logan had left Quinn's guest room a couple minutes later to shower and get dressed.

He was sitting on his bed with his back resting against the headboard and his legs spread straight out in front of him; watching television, when there was a knock at his door.

Turning off the TV, Logan slipped out of bed to find his girlfriend on the other side, smiling happily up at him. It seemed like weeks since he had seen Quinn so cheerful. Taking in her appearance, he saw that she was dressed in jean shorts and a festival red tank top with a side braid in her hair. Her hair was still damp from her shower.

Smiling back at her, he said, "Ready for breakfast?"

Quinn simply nodded in response. Clasping their hands together, they headed down the staircase towards the kitchen, talking excitedly to each other about what they were going to do that day.

The lightheartedness continued until they reached the open entryway into the kitchen, and Quinn suddenly stopped in her tracks, forcing him to be pulled to a halt. She reached up to wrap a hand around his arm, stepping slightly behind him. Her grin was instantly replaced by a fearful expression. Wondering what could have caused the sudden change in his girlfriend's emotions, he followed her gaze only to see his father sitting down at the island with his laptop open in front of him.

He was shocked. His father hardly ever stayed home. Growing up, Logan was mostly raised by nannies and the other staff members that worked for his dad. Malcolm rarely even took time off for birthdays and holidays, and yet, this was the third day in a row that the man had been hanging around the house.

Logan gently tugged Quinn back into the hallway to talk to her.

"What is he doing in there? Can't he work in his office?" Quinn questioned, irritation in her voice.

He shrugged. "I don't know. Usually he's out somewhere: working on his TV shows or movies. I've never seen him around the house this much in one week. I don't understand why he's hanging around so much now."

"Yeah, you do," she stated firmly. Logan sent her a questioning look and she rolled her eyes. "He's here because of me. He wants to keep an eye on us."

Logan sighed, knowing that she was probably right. "Why don't you head into the living room? I'll grab our plates and meet you in there."

He could tell that Quinn was still uneasy about the idea of his father hanging around to spy on them, but she agreed to head down to the living room to wait for him.

Once she was out of sight, Logan turned back to enter the kitchen and headed straight for the island. At his approach, the chef twisted around to grab the plate of food he had set aside for him and placed it on the island in front of the open seat next to his father. Seeing the plate out of the corning of his eye, Malcolm turned to look over his shoulder to see who was coming over to join him.

Ignoring the stare, Logan focused on the chef. "Can you give me Quinn's plate as well? We're going to eat in the living room today."

"Your 'girlfriend' is avoiding me now, huh?" Malcolm questioned, giving a small smirk.

Logan sent him a scowl. "Can you blame her after what happened yesterday?"

"Nothing happened," he stated, turning back to his laptop.

"Nothing happened?! You tried to replace Quinn with another girl!" Logan shrieked back.

"And apparently it didn't go anywhere," his father acknowledged calmly.

His tone caused Logan to pause in shock. "So . . ."

Malcolm sighed in resentment. "I have decided to take a couple days off of work. For the rest of this week I'll be around, and I'll take some time to start getting to know this girl." He paused, pointing a finger at Logan and moving it up and down as if he was scolding him. "Now, this doesn't mean I approve of Quinn. What I am doing is giving her a chance to prove to me that she is good enough for you."

Regardless of his father's intense stare, Logan felt a huge grin spread across his face. "She is! Quinn's the best, dad. You'll see that."

Malcolm glared at him as if to say, 'We'll see', before turning back to the computer.

Grabbing ahold of the two plates of food, Logan practically skipped out of the kitchen, barely being able to contain his excitement. Hurrying in the direction of the living room, he couldn't wait to tell Quinn the good news.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

I had just turned on the television and had gotten myself comfortable on the couch when I heard Logan enter the room from my left. Turning to look at him, I saw a smile on his face. This wasn't Logan's normal, smirking smile. He seemed to be beaming with happiness. Optimism seemed to be radiating from him and I couldn't help smiling back at him as he approached.

He gently set the plates of food that he was carrying down on the coffee table before joining me on the sofa. Folding one leg under him, his knee made a dent in the back cushion. He rested his arm across the back of the couch, lightly brushing my shoulder in the process.

"You'll never guess what just happened," he said, still grinning.

The corner of my lip perked up on one side. "What?"

He reached up with the hand that was in his lap to move a couple strains of hair behind my ear. "My dad promised to stop trying to convince me to break up with you."

My eyes widened slightly in shock and I moved to place my hand on his knee. "Really?"

The smile grew on his face. "Yes, really! He wants to take sometime to get to know you more."

I couldn't believe it. By refusing to shake my hand when I first met him, I knew Logan's father had not approved of me from the start. To drill in this point, his dad had insulted me a number of times during dinner that first night. And yesterday, Malcolm had arranged for another teenage girl to come to his house to try and draw his son away from me. It didn't make sense for him to just give up already.

A frown appeared on my face as I tried to understand what was happening. "So, your dad is now accepting me as your girlfriend?"

Logan's smile wavered a bit as he continued. "Well . . . not exactly. He wanted to make it clear that he wasn't approving of you yet. He said that he was going to 'give you a chance to prove to him that you are good enough for me'."

" _Good enough for you?_ What does that mean?"

Logan moved his arm from the back of the couch and started to play with my hair, tickling my neck. He shook his head confidently before going on. "Don't worry about that, Quinn. You are 'good enough' for me. Just be yourself. He'll see."

How could he be so sure about this? I had been being myself since I arrived here, and Malcolm hadn't seemed the least bit impressed.

* * *

After finishing our breakfast, Logan suggested that we get out of the house for a little while, probably sensing that I wasn't ready to start spending time with his father yet.

As the chef prepared a picnic lunch for us, Logan and I headed upstairs to change into our swimsuits before jumping into his silver convertible and headed out for the beach.

It only took us about half-an-hour to arrive at our destination, and Logan managed to find a parking spot within walking distance of the boardwalk. Hopping out, I swung my purse over my shoulder and headed around to the back of the vehicle to grab the towels out of the trunk, so Logan could carry the picnic basket and an umbrella. Slamming the trunk closed, Logan pressed a button on his car keys and we instantly heard the sound of all the doors locking simultaneously, before turning and heading in the direction of the beach.

In order to get to the sand, we had to travel down a wooden walkway that took us right onto the beach. Some of the boards were partly hidden under the sand due to the long years of usage. Eventually, the feel of the wooden planks under our sandals disappeared only to be replaced by our feet sinking slightly into the loose granular substance as we continued towards the ocean.

It felt so good to be outside, on the sand again. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath through my nose, letting the salty smell of the ocean take ahold of me and focused my attention on the sound of the waves crashing against the shore.

While I was enjoying the feel of the ocean breeze rolling pass me, I felt Logan grab my hand. Opening my eyes, I let my boyfriend gently tug me closer to the ocean to find a place to set up our stuff.

Setting the basket aside for now, it did not take long for Logan to set up the beach umbrella for me, and I laid out my towel under the shade it provided. Moving to lay down on my stomach, I reached into my purse to pull out the book I had been working on lately and opened it up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Logan setting up his towel a couple feet away from me in the sun in order to work on his tan.

As I flipped through the pages of my novel, I could hear children laughing and playing around me. The cool ocean breeze occasionally brushed by, creating a nice balance to the heat of the day.

Turning away from my book, I stole a glance over at my boyfriend. Wearing nothing but his red swim trunks, he was currently lying on his stomach with his arms folded under his head, facing away from me. A small smile crept onto my face as I watched him. It almost looked like he was asleep.

I was about to go back to my book, when Logan suddenly raised his head and continued to stare at something farther down the beach. It wasn't until I pushed myself up onto my knees that I saw who he was looking at. Maia Anderson was heading in our direction, and once again, Logan couldn't seem to take his eyes off of her.

Compared to my outfit, my favorite dark purple bikini suit hidden underneath my white hooded cover up; Maia was dressed in a black mesh sheer dress cover up. It wasn't until she got closer that I realized that the fabric was see-through, allowing us to see her sexy yellow bikini outfit underneath. She looked way better in this getup then she had in her dress last night. I could only imagine what thoughts were going through Logan's head.

Sure, I knew Logan loved me. Yes, I knew he wouldn't cheat on me. But did he have to keep staring at her like that? Just knowing that this girl sparked some kind of interest in my boyfriend made my stomach twist in knots . . . and she was quickly approaching our location.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"Hey, guys." Maia gave a little wave as she drew closer. "What are you two doing here?"

I watched as Logan moved into a sitting position on his towel and shrugged his shoulders. Without taking his eyes off of the blonde teen, he gestured in my direction before saying, "We just needed to get out of the house for a little while."

Maia folded her arms in front of her chest and the corner of her lip perked up on one side in a smirk. "Your father is at home, huh?"

"Actually, my dad said he was going to start being nicer to Quinn. He's going to start trying to except her as my girlfriend." I didn't need to be able to see his face to know he was smiling when he said that.

Turning back to look at Maia, I caught the slight hint of a frown before it was quickly replaced with a shy smile. "Well, that's great news. Sounds like everything worked out between you two love birds."

Logan finally peeled his eyes away from Maia long enough to send a grin in my direction. "Yeah, I explained everything to Quinn. She knows that nothing happened between us last night."

"Well, that's great. I'm happy for you guys."

The smile was still planted on her face, but the happiness didn't seem to reach her eyes. Several ideas about what this could mean swam through my head and I tried to force the thoughts away as Maia spoke up again.

"Would it be okay if I joined you guys?"

Before I could say anything to this, Logan agreed and scooted over a little to make room for the woman to kneel down on his towel.

"Thanks," Maia said, beaming in Logan's direction. She then turned towards me again. "I am sorry about the misunderstanding yesterday. If I had known that this guy had a girlfriend, I never would have flirted with him," she replied, nodding towards my boyfriend.

Something about her tone made me not want to believe in the sincerity of her apology, and the fact that she was seated just a few inches from my boyfriend wasn't helping the situation.

Logan and Maia spent the next hour talking and eating the picnic lunch we had brought with us. At first, I tried to ignore what was going on just a couple feet away from me, but I wasn't able to focus on the words in my book anymore. Eventually, I placed my novel back into my purse and got my own plate of food together. I tried to join in with their conversation, but that didn't seem to do any good either. Nothing I said seemed to drag much of Logan's attention away from the new girl.

A part of me knew he was just trying to be nice to her. Maia was new to the area and he wanted to show her that there were no hard feelings about last night, but I felt like the whole thing was going too far. Logan and I had come to the beach to hang out, just the two of us, and now I felt like I was being brushed to the side.

"Hey, Quinn?" Maia suddenly asked, turning away from Logan. "Do you and Logan want to go shopping with me? It would give us some time to get to know each other more."

I hesitated, not knowing exactly what she meant by 'us'. I didn't want Maia to come anywhere with Logan and I. When Logan had suggested that we head to the beach, I had pictured him and I wrapped up in each other's arms, relaxing, and probably making out. Nowhere in that picture was this blonde beauty present. Nonetheless, for some reason I found myself agreeing to join her in her shopping spree, and Logan got up to help me pack up all our stuff.

As Maia helped by folding up the towel her and my boyfriend had been using, Logan bent down next to me as he worked on taking down the umbrella.

"We don't have to go with her," he said, lowering his voice so Maia wouldn't hear our conversation.

"I thought you would want to spend more time with her," I commented, as I worked on putting away everything from our picnic.

"Not if you don't want too," he replied smoothly, setting the now closed umbrella down next to the picnic basket, and moved to pick up the towel I had been using.

There was a moment of silence between us. When the last of the silverware was stowed away into the basket, I turned around to find Logan glancing at Maia; the towel Logan had been folding was still in his hands.

"Do you have to keep doing that?" I questioned.

"What?" he asked, turning away from Maia.

Pushing myself to my feet, I took a step towards him and reached to take the towel from his hands. "Staring at her like that."

"Sorry," he mumbled. Noticing his shirt that was still on the ground, he bent down to pick it up and shook some of the sand off of it. Before he could say anything else, Maia came over with the other towel and handed it to Logan.

"I'm not parked that far away," she replied. "If you want, you guys can put your stuff in the trunk of my car for now, and I can drop you off at your vehicle when we are done shopping."

At this, Logan turned back to me and raised his eyebrow in question. I didn't like the idea of Maia taking us anywhere. If I agreed to this, and later decided that I was ready to head back to Logan's house, we would still have to get back into Maia's car so she could give us a ride back to Logan's vehicle. I didn't like the idea of not being able to leave when I wanted too. The whole idea of having to rely on Maia to get us back made me feel trapped.

Regardless of these worries circling in my mind, I again found myself nodding my head in agreement. Next thing I knew, the three of us were working on gathering everything up, before heading in the direction of Maia's car.

* * *

"This is cute," Logan heard Maia call from a few racks down.

Shopping with girls was not something he usually enjoyed doing. In his experience, this activity was always accompanied with the girl picking out outfit after outfit to try on, leaving him to hold onto her purse. It had often been an event that left him feeling drained by the end of it, and today was no exception. The only reason why he wasn't complaining as much as he usually would was because of how Quinn had seemed to be opening up to Maia.

Glancing over his shoulder, Logan watched as the blonde teenager held up a dark blue blouse in front of Quinn's body. The two women already had quite a stack of clothes going, which they were planning on trying on as soon as they finished looking around.

A bright smile was currently painted onto Quinn's face. Logan had been starting to think that Maia and Quinn were never going to be getting along, but that was beginning to look like a fear of the past.

Smiling to himself, he turned back to the racks in front of him and mindlessly began to scan through the articles of clothing, not really seeing any of them.

"Hey," replied a familiar voice behind him. Turning, he saw Maia coming over to join him.

He nodded in recognition before going back to what he was doing. "Where's Quinn?"

"She's in the dressing room, trying stuff on," she stated, as she began to look through the clothes on the same rack that Logan was going through.

"Thanks for doing this. I think Quinn really needed this 'girl time'," he explained.

"Sure." She nodded. A moment of silence past before she added. "You know, I'm not doing any this for her."

"What do you mean?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the selections.

Logan felt Maia grab his arm. "You're dating a science nerd from a middle class family, whom your father doesn't even approve of. I can't imagine how the students at your school are handling the idea of you going out with this girl."

He simply shrugged his shoulders. "Everyone seems to have mixed opinions about the whole thing, but we deal with it."

As he talked, he felt a tingly sensation go up his arm as Maia began to softly trace patterns along the skin with her index finger. "Don't you think it would be nice to go out with someone who doesn't cause others to tease you?"

A small voice in the back of Logan's head was telling him that he should brush the girls hand off of him. A part him knew that he should turn and walk away now, but her bright brown eyes were staring intensely into his and he couldn't make his legs move.

"And you think you're right for the part?" he heard himself ask.

Time seemed to slow down around him. One moment he was staring into Maia's eyes and the next the blonde was starting to slowly lean in towards him.

Logan could feel his heart start to pound in his chest. The voice that had been in the back of his head was still there, telling him that this was all going too far, but another part of him, one that he had been struggling with since he first laid eyes on the blonde teen, was begging him to give in.

When her lips softly pressed against his, Logan felt his body tense up slightly. He had stayed faithful to Quinn for so many months and, although he hated to admit it, a small piece of him missed having women chase after him all the time. Life was exciting back then; not knowing who he was going to meet or what was going to happen.

As Maia went to deepen the kiss, Logan moved his arms up to her shoulders and gently pulled the girl closer to him. Forcing Quinn to the back of his mind, he slowly began to move his lips against the blonde's. Besides, what was wrong with giving in to the temptation just one last time?


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

When we had finished shopping, the three of us piled back into Maia's car to get ready to head our separate ways. For the ride back to Logan's vehicle, I sat up front with Maia, while Logan sat in the back next to the plastic bags that were filled with our purchases.

I had spent a lot of time with Maia over the last couple of hours and I was shocked to discover that this woman didn't appear to be the 'slutty boyfriend stealer' that I had originally pictured her to be. Throughout the day's shopping spree, Maia had been nothing but friendly towards me. I felt horrible about how I had treated her at the beach. It wasn't hard to imagine the two of us becoming close friends.

On our way back towards the beach, Maia and I talked excitedly to each other about our other friends and our home lives. I was surprised to find that I actually had quite a bit in common with this rich and beautiful woman.

Maia was busy telling me about a time when her and her friends snuck out of their houses to see a concert in town, when I realized that Logan hadn't spoken up at all since we had gotten back in the car.

Turning around in my seat, I saw my boyfriend sitting right behind me with his hands in his lap, staring out the window. He seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. I was about to ask him if he was okay, but before I could get the words out Maia spoke up again, interrupting me.

"How much farther to your car?" she questioned, looking at Logan through the rear-view mirror. This brought the boy out of his daze, at least for the moment, and he helped guide Maia towards the location of his silver convertible.

Maia pulled into an open parking space just a few cars down from Logan's, and the three of us got out to stow all of the beach equipment in the trunk and placed all of my shopping bags in the backseat of the convertible.

When we had finished sorting through all of our belongings, I turned to give Maia a hug goodbye.

"Thanks for inviting us to come with you. I had fun," I exclaimed.

"No problem. I had fun too. Hopefully the three of us can get together again before you guys head back to school," she responded, sending a smirk in Logan's direction. I thought I also saw her wink at him, but after the day we had just had, I figured my mind was just playing tricks on me.

Logan handed me the car keys and I headed over to the passenger's seat to let my boyfriend say his goodbyes.

* * *

Logan watched Quinn as she got into the passenger's seat of his car. As soon as the door closed behind her, he felt something push him back against the trunk of his car.

Spinning around to find out what had shoved him, he came face-to-face with a seductive looking Maia. Before he had the chance to do anything, she placed a quick but soft kiss on his lips. Pulling back she whispered, "You want to sneak over to my place later tonight? I promise you'll have fun."

"I don't think that would be a good idea . . .," he stated slowly, staring with wide eyes at the girl that was pinning him against his car.

"Oh, come on, Logan," she cooed, moving closer against his body. "Quinn doesn't have to know about us. I won't say anything to her."

Logan considered this proposition for a couple seconds. What Maia was offering him was the chance to keep Quinn as his girlfriend, but he would be able to see Maia as well . . . and Quinn didn't have to know a thing.

He had to admit the offer was tempting, but guilt was already tearing him up inside, and he had only kissed Maia once. How much worse would he feel if he continued down this road? Besides, Maia didn't have to tell Quinn about them. There were other ways that Quinn could find out about him having an affair, and that would surely lead to a break up between them. The whole thing just sounded like a bad idea and it wasn't worth the risk of losing Quinn.

Not giving himself a chance to change his mind, Logan reached up to grab both of Maia's hands by her wrists, which were currently placed on his chest, and forced her arms down to her sides. Shaking his head he said, "I can't. I don't want to do this to Quinn."

"You already have," she responded with a smirk. "You kissed me back."

"I shouldn't have done that. It was a mistake. If Quinn ever found out about it . . ."

"Like I said, she's not going to hear about it from me," she reminded him. Her voice became lower and lower as she continued. "Come on Logan, I know you enjoyed that kiss. Just think of what else we could do . . ." She leaned forward again, making a move towards his neck, but Logan was prepared this time and pushed her away before her lips could touch his skin.

"Stop it! I'm telling you no," he said, raising his voice as much as he dared. He didn't want Quinn to over hear anything. "Is my dad putting you up to this?"

"What? No!" Maia cried. She brushed his hands off of her and took a step back. "Your father's plan ended last night. He wanted us to meet. Whatever happens now has nothing to do with him."

"And like I told you last night, I have a girlfriend. I care about Quinn a lot and I don't want to hurt her this way."

Maia shook her head in astonishment. "You're seriously turning me down . . . for her?" she questioned, pointing to herself and then gesturing behind him to where Quinn was currently waiting for him in the car.

"Yes," he stated firmly. "I'm choosing Quinn."

Maia sighed in surrender. "Fine, I'll back off." To farther express this point, she took a couple more steps backwards, creating more space between them. "Your dad still has my number. Give me a call if you change your mind." With that, Maia turned on her heels and marched back to her vehicle.

Logan waited until she had pulled her car out of the parking spot and drove away, before turning and heading towards the driver's side of his own automobile.

He had just sat down behind the wheel and was pulling the door closed behind him, when a voice spoke up to his right.

"Everything okay?"

Facing Quinn, Logan noticed not for the first time, how beautiful she truly was. Unlike Maia, who flaunted her beauty by covering herself in tons of make-up and wore skimpy outfits, Quinn's beauty seemed to come naturally. She wore very little make-up, if any at all. Her long brunette hair fell in waves down past her shoulders . . . and those dark, chocolate brown eyes. His girlfriend was beautiful; perfect, and he had almost giving her up for some random blonde bimbo.

He felt like an idiot. Back when he was averaging three girls a week, most of his conquests had been attractive, blonde, empty-headed young women. Since he and Quinn's relationship had become official, he had fought off any temptation he had to return to the life style that had once seemed so natural to him, but then Maia had walked into his life. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since he had first laid eyes on her and the woman had already caused him to step back into his old ways.

He felt ashamed of his weakness. He had kissed Maia. He had cheated on Quinn and there was nothing he could do to take that back.

He knew that he should tell her what had happened. He should beg for her forgiveness, but he didn't want to lose her. He couldn't tell her. It would ruin everything.

He slowly reached out a hand to caress her cheek and tried to send her a genuine smile. "Yeah, everything's great."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Over the next couple of days, Logan's father did seem to really try to be nicer to me. When I say 'nicer', I mean having to endure awkward conversations with him at the kitchen table, deal with very little time to be alone with my boyfriend because his father was always hanging around, and whenever Malcolm would try and smile at me, it continuously came out looking strained. Not only that, but the look in his eyes still told me that he was not okay with me dating his son.

Logan had been acting weird the past couple of days as well. At first I thought that he was noticing the still clear signs that his father was not approving of me, but his mood seemed to be directed at something else. He seemed to be distracted by something all the time, always lost in thought. Whenever I managed to pull him out of it, he would try to tell me that it was nothing. If I attempted to push the subject farther, he would simply close up again. I sensed that there was something he wanted to talk to me about, but he was having trouble getting the words out.

* * *

Logan was sitting with his girlfriend watching something on TV in the living room. He wasn't able to focus on what was happening on the screen in front of him. His mind had started to wonder, once again, back to the kiss he had shared with Maia not too long ago. He still felt extremely guilty about what had happened. He hated himself for doing that to Quinn. He wanted to tell Quinn what had happened. He needed to hear her say that she forgives him for cheating on her, but what stopped him every time was the fear that if he mentioned the incident to her, their relationship would be over.

"Logan?" Quinn suddenly asked, forcing him back to the present. She lifted her head off of his shoulder to look at him. "Are you okay?"

"What? Fine," he replied, shaking his head to get the image of him and Maia out of his mind.

"Will you stop that?" she demanded. "Something has obviously been bothering you lately."

"I'm fine. Really," he said, reaching for the remote. "Just let it go."

He could feel Quinn's eyes on him as he switched through the TV channels, trying to find something else to watch.

"Come on, Logan. I know something is going on. You have been acting really weird for the past couple of days," she pressed.

"It's nothing," he replied, only half listening to her now.

He kept his eyes focused on the screen as it flipped through the channels in response to the commands he was directing with the controller. One moment, the remote was in his hand and the next it was being jerked out of his grip. Quinn had snatched it away from him and was now staring at him intently.

"Please, Logan. I want to help. I'm your girlfriend. You can talk to me," she rambled. "Did your father say something about me?"

He quickly shook his head. "This has nothing to do with my father." Although, his father did arrange for the meeting of Maia to take place, which in some ways did led to what had now happened.

"Then what is it?"

Logan turned his eyes away from Quinn's. "I kissed Maia," he mumbled, forcing the words out under his breath. Saying it made him feel sick. He could feel his girlfriend's eyes staring at him, uncomprehendingly.

"You . . . what?"

He sighed, and forced himself to look up at her. "I . . . kissed Maia," he said, this time speaking the words clearly.

With the words finally spoken out loud, Logan fearfully watched as Quinn's body stiffened in her seat. What little color she had in her pale skin drained from her face and her mouth opened slightly in shock.

"Quinn?" he asked softly, and reached out to place a hand on her shoulder.

"You . . . kissed her?"

"Yes, but it was a mistake. It never should have happened. I have been feeling terrible about it ever since . . ."

She quickly shook her head back-and-forth, a few tears appearing in her eyes. "Why – how could you?"

"I . . ."

Quinn suddenly jumped up from the couch. "How could you kiss her?!"

Logan felt defeated. He couldn't bring himself to look at her. He knew that by now the tears would be running down her cheeks. "I don't know how it happened."

"You told me she didn't mean anything to you!" she cried. Logan could feel her eyes staring down at him. "You lied to me. You told me nothing happened."

He sighed, and pulled his eyes away from his hands to look up at the young woman. "I didn't lie to you. When I told you that, it was right after we had met Maia for the first time. I didn't kiss her then."

"Then when? When did this happen?"

Avoiding her eyes again, he mumbled, "At the store when we were shopping with her. You had gone into the dressing room."

Logan paused, letting this information sink in. He glanced up just in time to see Quinn start to turn and walk out of the room.

"Quinn!" he cried, jumping up from his place on the couch. He started to advance towards her, but she turned back halfway to the exit. The look on her face made him pause.

Shaking her head slowly, she said, "Don't follow me. This . . . this is over."

That word almost crushed him. This couldn't be over. His worse fear was coming true. She wanted to break up with him. Quinn was the best thing that had ever happened to him – he couldn't give her up without a fight! He knew his excuses would be ineffective, but he had to try.

"Please Quinn, just listen to me. I'm sorry! That girl didn't mean anything. It was just a moment of . . . of weakness."

But she didn't want to hear it. "Stay away from me." She then turned to walk out of the living room, leaving Logan alone with his broken heart.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

The night that followed my break up with Logan was one of the worse I had ever experienced. The pain I had felt after losing Mark was nothing compared to this. When Mark ended things, I was more angry than broken hearted. I had never felt anything like this before.

The numb feeling I had in the pit of my stomach as I walked out of the living room and away from Logan was gone, and what took its place was a gnawing ache that seemed to grow more intense as the hours slowly dragged by.

This awful pain, located deep inside my chest, only seemed to be intensifying. As I lay on the bed, tossing and turning into the night, I wrapped my arms around my abdomen in an attempt to stall the nausea I was feeling. Tears poured down my cheeks and left stains on the pillowcase and sheets. It felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest and I couldn't make the pain go away.

Knowing that Logan was trying to sleep in the next room didn't help things at all. I attempted to hold back my sobs, not wanting him to know how much he had hurt me. I didn't want to give him that satisfaction.

How could he do this to me? After all those times he had said he loved me; that he cared about me. He told me that he didn't want anybody else. He promised that he would stay faithful and would never hurt me like Mark did with Brooke. He said he would never hurt me like this.

Had I done something wrong? Was I not good enough for him? I had given him everything. Love, comfort, support, encouragement . . . I had even given him my virginity. I trusted that boy with my life. How could I have been so stupid?

* * *

As Logan forced his legs to move him up the stairs, the words that Quinn had spoken kept going around and around in his head.

"You . . . kissed her?"

"Stay away from me."

"This . . . this is over."

His heart thumped in his chest. He hated himself for causing her so much pain. He felt like an idiot. He had the smartest, prettiest girlfriend, and he had just let her go . . . all because of some random blonde.

He slowly shuffled his way down the hall towards his room. Pausing in front of the door, he stole a glance at the entrance to the guest room next to his. He could hear Quinn crying softly from inside and his heart plummeted even more. He had to fix this. He had to make this up to her . . . but how?

Sighing, he reached out for his doorknob and headed inside his room to get ready for bed.

* * *

I had eventually fallen asleep at some point during the night due to complete exhaustion. It wasn't long before the blinding sun was shining through the window forcing me to open my eyes slightly.

Not wanting to have to face Malcolm or Logan yet, I rolled over and squeezed my eyes shut, praying that sleep would take me again. Instead, the familiar feeling of pain washed over me and a couple tears appeared at the corner of my eyes. I quickly wiped them away and lifted my head up high enough to see the clock on the nightstand. 7:34 a.m.

I sighed and let my head fall back onto the pillow. There was still another week left before spring break ended and we could go back to school. I really didn't want to have to spend seven days hanging around a mansion where the owner hated me and his son was now my ex. I had to get out of here.

Shoving the covers off, I crawled out of bed and started to get ready for the day, packing up all my belongings in the process.

* * *

Logan spent the night sinking in and out of a fitful sleep. Whenever he would awaken, he thought he could hear Quinn still sobbing in the next room. Every time that sound reached his ears, he felt his heart sink in his chest and his stomach twisted in knots, before he would dive back into sleep.

He finally gave up on sleep around 7:30 and got up to get dressed before heading downstairs, hoping that Quinn would be up already. He needed to try and talk to her again about what he had done. There had to be some way he could make this up to her. There had to be a way to convince her to give him another chance.

Hurrying around the corner into the kitchen, Logan came to an abrupt halt when he saw that the room was empty. The chef wasn't even present yet.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket he saw that it was nearly eight o'clock in the morning. Quinn would probably be getting up by now.

Logan impatiently tapped his foot against the ground and chewed on his bottom lip gently, trying to decide what he should do. He could just wait here for her. She would have to come down eventually to eat, but he didn't want to wait for her. He needed to speak to her now.

Stuffing his phone back into his pocket, he turned and hurried back the way he had just come and bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time and sprinted down the hallway to his destination. By the time he reached the guest room, his heart was pounding in his chest. One way or another, he was determined to win back his girl.

Raising his hand, he prepared himself to knock when suddenly the door swung open to expose a shocked looking Quinn on the other side.

"Logan?" she questioned, obviously surprised to see him standing there. Quickly recovering, she replaced her shocked expression with a scowl. "What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you. Quinn, I . . ." he let the sentence drown off as he eyes came to rest on the packed bags that were placed right by the door. "Where are you going?" he cried, baffled as he watched her move to pick up the luggage.

She took a couple steps out the room, forcing Logan to back up a few feet and turned to head down the hall. "I'm going home."

Logan had to hurry to catch up to her. "But you can't leave!"

"Watch me."

He reached for her arm, bringing her to a stop. "Quinn, please! I know I messed up, but . . . come on! There has to be something I can do. What can I do to fix this?"

"That's just it, Logan. You can't fix this," she cried, shaking her head.

"It was a mistake! Can you give me another chance?" he begged.

"You kissed another girl. You can't take that back."

She started to turn away from him, but Logan grabbed her arm again to stop her. "Quinn . . . please," he pleaded, lowering his voice. "I'll never do anything like this again. I never want to come this close to losing you ever again." As he talked, he slowly brushed his hand up her arm, to her shoulder, and then came to rest with his fingers gently cupping her cheek. "I'll do anything, Quinn. Just name it."

She hesitated, staring into his eyes. He could tell that she wanted to believe him. She wanted to give in, but she couldn't do it. Not yet.

His heart clenched in his chest as she slowly shook her head back-and-forth, a couple tears coming to her eyes.

"Why? One more chance. That's all I'm asking for," he pleaded, moving closer to her.

"You know what happened with me and Mark. He chose another girl over me. You did the same thing."

"I didn't choose her," he said, moving his head slightly side-to-side. "I told her that. Nothing else is going to happen between me and Maia."

He saw it in her eyes again, the doubt that she was doing the right thing by leaving him.

After a short hesitation, she shook her head again and took a step away from him. "I can't do this now. I need time to think. I need to go home."

"But you'll think about it?" he asked, hope sparking inside him. Maybe this would work out after all.

She nodded slowly. "I'll . . . think about it, but right now I have to go." She turned, heading for the stairs.

Logan moved to fall into step beside her. "Okay, let me at least give you a ride to the airport –"

"No," she stated firmly. "I already called for a cab. It should be here any minute."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded, sending him a small smile. "I need to be alone right now. Okay?"

Logan's heart started to pound in his chest at the idea of her walking out without him. He didn't want to let her go, but there was nothing he could do. If she wanted to leave, he couldn't force her to stay with him.

"Okay," he mumbled under his breath. Raising his voice slightly, he continued. "You'll text me when you arrived back in Seattle?"

"Promise," she replied, before turning her back to him and headed for the stairs.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Once I arrived at the airport, I purchased my ticket at the counter and checked-in my luggage, before grabbing my purse and headed over to security. As I waited in line, I found my mind drifting towards my ex-boyfriend, Mark Del Figgalo.

Mark had never really been a romantic type. He was never closely connected to his emotions and didn't have a ton of friends, feeling more comfortable with his small group of companions. At the time, I didn't care about any of this. Looking back on it now after being with Logan, Mark had been so plain and boring. I mean, some of his favorite hobbies are collecting rocks and antique calendars, and he enjoys knitting.

Logan is completely different. From the first time I met him, Logan was often arrogant and extremely self-absorbed, usually describing himself as being attractive. He has always been very athletic, participating in multiple sports teams, and enjoys working out and exercising, but he would always portray himself as a flirtatious jerk. He never seemed to treat the girls he would date with much respect. Over the years, I often wondered why so many girls appeared to be attracted to him and yet, somehow I had found myself in the same position.

I forced the two boys to the back of my mind as I made it to the front of the line and placed my belongings into a box to go through the scanner. I waited for the security to wave me through the metal detector, and than went to retrieve my stuff on the other side.

Finding a place to sit down, I set my purse on the empty seat next to me and bent over to slip my shoes back onto my feet. With my shoes retied, I grabbed my belongings and started to walk in the direction of my gate. On the way, I stopped at a Starbucks stationed in the airport terminal and bought myself an iced coffee. Drink in hand, I found a seat at my gate and took my book out to try and get some reading done, but I couldn't concentrate on the words.

When I was dating Mark, I had usually been the one doing everything I could to keep the relationship moving forward while he seemed satisfied with how things were. This was one reason why it took him so long to kiss me for the first time. Taking that step didn't mean much to Mark.

With Logan it was opposite. He has the uncanny ability to attract any girl that he wants. Logan is filled with nothing but self-confidence. He considers himself to be the best-looking guy at PCA. This leads to him acting stuck-up and full of himself. When it comes to the women he dates he can be fairly sexist and be insensitive towards their feelings. He would go as far as he can with a girl on one date, before dropping them and moving on to the next one. As far as I know, I am the first and only girl he has been serious enough with to be in a relationship for this long.

My head snapped up from my book as a new thought came to my mind. Logan said he hadn't kissed Maia the night we first met her. Instead, that interaction took place the next day. It was in between these two events that Logan and I slept together for the first time.

Was that it? Did he believe that our relationship had gone as far as it could go and he was ready to move on? Maybe he was never looking for a steady relationship. Maybe he was just biding his time, waiting for me to give him the go-ahead . . .

"Flight 216, to Seattle, Washington, is now boarding. Please get in line with your tickets," someone announced over the loudspeaker.

I put my book back into my purse and took out my plane ticket. Standing up from my seat, I slipped my purse onto my shoulder before turning back to grab my half empty cup of coffee, and headed over to get in line to board the plane.

Twenty minutes later, I was getting myself situated in my seat, which was right by the window. Looking outside, I saw the wing of the plane stretched out in front of me.

It wasn't long before the rest of the passengers were aboard the plane and seated. A couple more minutes went by before the plane started moving away from the gate and began to move towards the runway.

The engines started to roar as the passengers and I got pushed gently back in our seats and we accelerate to over a hundred and forty miles per hour. Gradually, I started to feel the front of the plane rise up and the sound of the wheels moving against the pavement ceased. Turning my head to look out the window, I saw the ground slowly moving away from us as the plane lifted higher-and-higher into the sky.

As the sound of the engine started to quiet down and the plane began to level off, I started to feel my eyelids getting heavy. The few hours of sleep I managed to get last night were starting to catch up with me. I had about two hours before the plane would land in Seattle. Closing my eyes, I let sleep take me over as my mind once again drifted off to Mark and Logan.

Brooke had broken up with Mark because he wasn't 'exciting'. I had to agree with this. But even so, everyone seemed to think that we were a perfect couple. We had quite a bit in common. We both liked science. We both studied hard, wanting to do well in all of our classes. We both had little quirks that no one else seemed to understand, and this made it hard at times to fit-in at school.

Everybody thought that Mark and I were good together because of these reasons, but I think that was part of our problem. Mark and I are too similar. He had broken up with me to go out with Brooke, who still had some things in common with him, but was also someone different than him in many ways. The reason I had stayed with Mark for so long was because I was focusing on how similar we were to each other. To me, that was a sign that we were destined to be together. When he broke up with me in order to date Brooke, someone who was so different from me, it made me feel like my world was falling apart. Nothing made sense anymore.

Nobody seemed to be able to see anything that Logan and I had in common that we could possible build a relationship on. This was one reason why everyone had a hard time adjusting to us as a couple. Sure, Logan and I were different in many ways. While Logan is rich, athletic, and slacked off in his classes, I am smart and always willing to help out my friends. Even so, Logan was very good in Chemistry, which was one of my favorite subjects. We both had little quirks that everyone, including our roommates, found annoying. Logan and I even had similar interests when it came to activities outside of school. A couple of these were playing basketball and making out. Logan even seemed to become nicer since he and I had started dating.

Slowly opening my eyes, I yawned as I heard the pilot announce that we were making are final descent into Seattle.

I had called my parents earlier to let them know that I had decided to come home and my dad had promised to be there to give me a ride.

As soon as I felt the wheels of the plane touch the pavement of the runway, I took out my phone to call my father to find out if he was here yet. He answered on the third ring and explained that he was waiting for me in the baggage claim. We talked for a couple more minutes, deciding to stop somewhere for lunch on out way home. By the time I hang up with my dad, the plane was pulling into the gate at the airport.

With some of the other passengers needing to stop to get their bags out of the overhead compartments, it took several more minutes to make my way off of the plane. Entering the terminal of the airport, I followed behind a group of people who had been on my plane to the baggage claim to retrieve my luggage and see my dad again for the first time in months.

"Quinn!" I heard a voice call as I entered the open room filled with people. "Quinn! Over here!"

Turning towards the voice, my eyes met with my dad's grinning face. I couldn't help but smile back as I hurried over to give him a hug.

"Look at this!" My father's voice boomed loud and clear in the crowded room. "My genus daughter has returned! I feel like I haven't seen you in years."

"You're exaggerating," I defended, pulling out of the hug. My purse had started to slip down my arm and I slid the strap back into place on my shoulder. "I came home for Christmas. That was only a couple months ago."

He laughed as he placed a hand on my shoulder and we moved closer to the conveyor belt.

"So, what made you decide to come home? I thought you wanted to spend your spring break with your boyfriend."

"I did, but I was starting to feel homesick. I wanted to come back and spend some of my break here." It wasn't a complete lie. I did miss my parents, but a part of me had also decided already to forgive Logan. After all, we had been dating for almost a year now and this was the first time he had done something like this. Considering the lifestyle he had once lived, I figured one slip up wasn't that bad, and I didn't want my dad holding this incident over Logan's head for the rest of our relationship . . . That is, if Logan still wanted a relationship with me.

That was when my cell phone suddenly vibrated in my pocket. Fishing it out, I saw that I had received a text from Logan. I quickly opened it and read . . .

 _I am so very much awfully big giant massively mega huge sorry! I really hope you can give me another chance._

A small smile appeared on my face as I read the message.

"Is that Logan?" my dad asked, sending me a knowing grin.

Before I could respond to him, my phone vibrated again.

 _Things won't be normal right away and I know that. I will find a way to win you back._

'Find a way to win me back?' What was he planning? Knowing Logan, he probably already had something in mind.

We had a week left until we headed back to school. If I made him wait before telling him I forgave him for his little stunt with Maia, it would make him think twice before doing something like this again.

I was also curious to see what he would do to attempt to make this up to me. After all, this was the guy who set up the janitors closet for us to dance in when we were still going out in secret and when I was desperate for a 'real date' with him, he made reservations for us to eat at Vacarros; a classy, fancy restaurant that served very expensive food.

Whatever he does, I knew it would be amazing. It sounded like he may go all out fighting to get me back. I knew he cared, but I never expect him to be this emotional and concerned if I said I wanted to break up with him.

I loved Logan. Hearing him tell me that he had kissed another woman made my heartache. The idea of kissing him again, knowing that his lips had touched someone else's just recently, made it difficult to forgive him. Even so, it was hard not to admit to myself that I already missed him terribly. I wanted to be with Logan and I hoped that the next time I saw him he would be able to convince me that he would never hurt me like this again.

If we could get past this, surely we get through anything.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

A couple days had passed since Quinn had gone home, leaving Logan feeling worse than ever. He couldn't believe how much he missed having her around. He still had four more days to go before he would be returning to PCA and would be able to see Quinn again, but after what he had done to hurt her, he was scared to find out if she truly did want to end their relationship or not.

Ever since she had left his house, he had been racking his brain trying to come up with some big gesture he could perform to win back his girl, but no matter how hard he thought about the subject, nothing seemed good enough.

Logan was sitting on the couch in his living room, flipping through channels, desperate to find something to watch to help him get Quinn off of his mind for a little while.

"Logan, what has been going on with you?" Turning towards the sound, he saw his dad walking into the room. "Why don't you go outside for a while? Get in the pool. Shoot hoops. You should go and do something besides lying around all day."

"I don't want too," he moaned.

"Is something wrong?" his dad questioned, growing more concerned.

The last thing Logan wanted to do was confide in his dad about the problems he and Quinn had been having lately. Considering how Malcolm had been treating Quinn, Logan figured that if he mentioned what had happened, the events would only please his father. He decided to make his reply as simple as possible and said, "I miss Quinn."

Malcolm moved over towards the couch and sat down next to his son. "Why did she leave?"

Logan shrugged, keeping his eyes on the TV screen. "It was a couple of different reasons. She wanted to see her parents before going back to school . . . and didn't feel comfortable being here with how you were treating her."

"Part of the reason she left was because of me? You know, I did try being nicer to her."

"I know," he said, even though truthfully he didn't believe his father was being as nice as he could have been to Quinn. He could certainly have tried harder. "She just needed sometime to herself."

Logan could feel his dad's eyes staring at him, but he refused to make eye contact with him. "There is something else . . . isn't there? Another reason why she left?"

He couldn't take it anymore. Over the last couple of days, Logan had been bottling up all of his emotions from his father. Everything that had happened over spring break was his dad's fault. His father was the one that didn't approve of Quinn, making her feel uncomfortable in the house. His father was the one that called the Anderson's to invite Maia and her parents over to try and convince him to end things with Quinn. His father was the one that brought that woman into his life that caused him to cheat on Quinn, making the biggest mistake of his life. For all he knew, Logan had lost Quinn forever, and it was his father's meddling that led to it.

"It's your fault! You ruined everything!"

"Me? What did I do?"

"You had to call Maia! You had to invite her over! Quinn broke up with me because of her! She doesn't want to see me anymore!"

There was a short pause as his father studied his son's face, frowning. "Is that what has been bothering you lately? Your relationship with the science nerd is over?"

Furious, Logan got to his feet and turned to face his father. "You don't get it! Ever since Quinn first arrived here I have been trying to tell you how much she means to me. She wasn't just some girl that I wanted to make out with. I had no plans of breaking up with her anytime soon. Quinn meant something to me, dad. She's special and fun and smart and pretty . . . and I love her. I love her, dad. Could you not see that?" He paused for breath, before continuing. "I have never had a steady girlfriend before. It was always one-time-dates, a make out session, and then I would move on to someone else. Quinn and I had been together for a while. She is different from all of the other girls I dated in the past. I have never found anyone like her before and I probably won't ever again. She broke up with me . . . and, and I don't know what to do."

Malcolm stared up at him, stunned. "She . . . broke up with you?" Logan just nodded his head. "I'm sorry . . . I didn't know you actually cared so much about this girl."

"You didn't want to know. You didn't care about how I felt. All you cared about was finding me a girlfriend like Maia to parade around. You never cared about what I wanted or how I felt about you trying to replace Quinn. Do you have any idea how she felt when she found out that you wanted me to be with someone like Maia? Quinn is usually filled with so much confidence and energy. She was only here for about a week, and because of you, I could tell that her personality was already starting to change."

"I'm sorry! I didn't realize . . . You're right, I should have listened to you about all of this before. Do you want me to call her? I could apologize for the way I acted. From now on, I'll leave you alone about who you choose to date. You can see whomever you want. Just give me her number. I'll talk to her about what happened."

Logan let out a soft sigh, and turned his eyes away from his father's. Shaking his head slowly back and forth, he said, "It probably won't do any good now."

"Sure it would. If I tell her that . . ."

"No," he replied sternly. "Quinn didn't brake up with me because of something you did . . . It was me. I did something stupid and ruined it."

"What did you do?"

Logan took his seat next to his father again. "I kissed Maia. I kissed her, and Quinn found out about it."

"Oh," Malcolm stated, not sure what else he could say.

"I have already apologized to her several times, and she said that she would think about giving me another chance, but I don't know . . . I really hurt her. I don't know what to do. I have to get her back, dad. How do I fix this?"

"You know, this isn't something that a girl can just forgive you for easily. There isn't a quick fix for a mistake like this. It's going to take time and work to gain her trust back."

"Anything! I want her back. How do I do that?"

"Well," Malcolm took a deep breath before going on. "The things that you should have already done are be honest with her; explain to Quinn what happened and why. You need to apologize for it, and don't blame Maia or especially Quinn for you cheating in the first place. It's your fault this happened. You will also need to cut off all contact with Maia. Quinn will never be able to trust you again if you continue to hangout with her."

"I've done all of that already. What now?"

"Communication is important. You need to gain her trust back. That is the hardest part. If you really love her and want her back you are going to have to make some sacrifices in order to get there."

"Of course. Anything," Logan expressed, looking at his dad with desperation in his eyes. All that matter was getting Quinn back into his life.

"Okay, here is what you have to do . . ."


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

It felt strange returning to PCA after the stressful vacation break that I had experienced. A part of me really wanted to go and see Logan, but I was still mad at him about kissing Maia. I was having a hard time grasping why he would do that to me if he truly loved me. I wasn't sure if Logan wanted to see me right away or if giving us space was a better idea.

My mom had dropped me back at campus and helped me get my bags to my room, before heading out to make the long trip back to Seattle. I started to unpack some of my bags, but it didn't take long before thoughts of Logan started crowding my mind. I decided to take a break and went for a walk around the campus.

As I made my way around PCA, I saw other students struggling with their own luggage. Everywhere I looked, happy faces were walking around, reuniting with their friends after the two weeks away from each other.

"Quinn!" I heard someone call behind me.

Turning around, I saw Chase hurrying towards me. In one hand, he was carrying a gray plastic tray with three cups of coffee placed in it.

"Hey Chase, what's up?"

"Nothing, much," he replied, falling into step next to me. "How have you been?"

I shrugged, "I'm okay."

There was a short pause before Chase spoke again. "Logan told me what happened."

I stopped and turned to look at my friend. "Really?"

"Yeah, he seems pretty upset about it. He wants to talk to you."

I let out a sigh before going on. "I don't want to see him right now."

"I get that. Especially due to how it ended, but he did want me to give you this."

Chase took one of the coffees from the tray he was carrying and handed it to me. It wasn't until then that I noticed there was a note taped to the cup.

"What is this?"

Ignoring my question, Chase continued. "I have to go. Zoey and I made plans to meet up. I'll see you around," he said. Sending me a quick wave goodbye, he turned and started to head in the direction of the girl's lounge.

I waited until the boy was out of sight before looking back at the folded piece of paper taped to the container. Tearing off the tape, I opened the note and began to read.

 _Hey Quinn! I know I really messed up, but I'm hoping that what I have planned is a start to getting you to trust me again._

 _As you know, I'm far from perfect, but you make me want to be a better person. You aren't just my girlfriend. You are my best friend, and I would hate to see that ruined._

 _Now, head to the basketball court for your next surprise._

I let a shy smile grow on my face. This was it. This was what I was hoping for. Logan was attempting to find a way to get me back . . . but trusting him again?

Looking back on it now, I couldn't believe I actually was able to trust him in the first place. He had gone out with so many girls before me, and yet when he had suggested that we make our relationship official, I didn't even question rather he would be able to stay faithful to me. Considering his background with girls and what had recently happened, I wasn't sure if I could continue being with him.

Regardless of my concerns, I was curious to see where Logan was going to take this apology.

Approaching the basketball courts, I didn't see anybody around. Taking a closer look, I spied a basketball resting on the bleachers on one side of the court. As I approached, I saw an orange tulip lying in front of the ball. Under the flower was another note.

Picking up the tulip, I brought the flower to my nose to breath in the scent before taking a seat on the bleachers and picked up the note.

 _Do you remember when you helped me with my free throws? That was the first time we spent anytime alone together, just the two of us. Every moment I'm with you makes me feel happy. Knowing that I hurt you makes my heart ache in a way I have never experienced before. After how far we have come, I really hate the idea of things being awkward between us._

 _For your next tulip, go to the bench where we had our first kiss._

I couldn't believe he was doing this. He was reminding me of some of the good times we had. I missed those moments; those special moments that we had of just the two of us. Being with Logan made me feel loved in a way I never got from Mark.

Desperate to find out what was awaiting me at the location where all of this had started, I stuffed the note into my pocket where I had stowed the first one. Playing with the flower in my hands, I made my way to my new destination.

As I drew closer, I saw a picture frame sitting on the bench with a pink tulip and another note was placed in front of it. Getting closer, I recognized the photo. It was Logan and I at our junior prom. The photo showed the two of us kissing right after we had announced in front of everyone that we loved each other. The smile on my face grew at the memory as I reached for the note.

 _This may sound cliché, but you really have changed me for the better. Ever since that first kiss we shared, I haven't been able to get you out of my head. You are my first girlfriend and I love you more than words can describe. Please give me the chance to show you how much you truly mean to me._

 _For your next gift, please come by my dorm room._

Mixed feelings were coursing through my veins. As my heart started to beat faster in my chest, I knew that I wanted to see him. I needed to see him. I loved Logan, and it would be so easy to simply give in and take him back, but thoughts of rather it would work out this time kept circling in my head. He cheated on me once. Who's to say he wouldn't do it again. Other girls are always going to be coming along. This could very easily happen again, and I didn't want to go through this pain ever again.

In the end, my heart won out and I started making my way towards the boy's dormitory. I gradually made my way down the hallway towards the door, my heart pounding the whole way. Reaching the room, I paused for a moment before knocking on the wood surface.

"Come in," someone called from inside, and I slowly opened the door to find Logan standing in the center of the room.

I still had the two flowers that I had collected in my hand, and I set them down before taking a couple of steps towards him.

"Logan . . ."

He held a hand up to stop me. "Let me go first," he explained. "Quinn, I know I really messed up. I never should have kissed Maia and I told her that I wasn't interested in her in that way. I promise, nothing else is going to happen between Maia and me. I won't even see her again, if that makes you more comfortable."

"This isn't just about the kiss, Logan. It's the way you acted around her. The way you kept staring at her, and at the beach that day . . . you acted like I wasn't even there."

"I . . . Quinn . . ."

"And the worst part is that the reason we met her in the first place was because of your dad. Maia is the kind of girl your dad wants you to be with. She is the type of girl he approves of." I paused, taking a deep breath before going on. "Maybe you should date her. The teasing at school would stop then, and your dad would be happy . . ."

"But I don't want her! I'm happy being with you, Quinn. I love you."

I pulled the notes that he had writing me out of my pocket and held them up for him to see. "Did you really think that this would fix everything? I know your sorry, and I know that you don't plan on doing something like this again, but other girls are always going to be coming around. How do I know this isn't going to happen again? How can I trust you now?"

"Things aren't going to be like they were right away. I know that, but I'm willing to work on it. However long it takes, I am willing to do whatever you need me to gain your trust again."

I softly nibbled at my bottom lip, thinking. "The last note said you had something to give me . . ."

Reaching into his pants pocket, Logan pulled out a gray box and opened it up to show me two rings.

I took a step closer to see the pieces of jewelry better. Both rings had what appeared to be two hands cupping a sapphire that were shaped like hearts. Over the sapphires were images of crowns. The only differences between the two rings were that one of them was slightly bigger and thicker than the other. I assumed the bigger one was meant for him.

"They're Claddagh rings. The pair of hands symbolizes friendship, the heart is a symbol for love, while the crown represents loyalty."

"I've heard of these. It's a traditional Irish jewelry. If it's worn with the heart pointing towards the end of your finger, it means that you're single and looking for a relationship. If it is worn with the heart facing towards the center of the hand, it means you are currently in a relationship."

"Right, and there is one for each of us. I never want to hurt you like this again, Quinn. These rings will represent our loyalty to each other."

I looked up at his face, and saw nothing by sincerity in his eyes. He really did want to try and make this work between us, but I couldn't give in just yet.

I slowly shook my head. "What about your father? He still doesn't approve of me."

"He does now."

I stared at him blankly. "What do you mean?"

"I talked to him again. I explained to him exactly how I feel about you, and he said that he would back off. He's going to let me date whomever I want, and I want you. He's not going to try and step in between us again."

Hearing this, a sent him a smile and nodded my head in acceptance of his gift.

As he pulled out the smaller of the two rings, I held out my right hand so he could slip the ring onto my finger, the heart facing towards the center of my hand. He then took out his ring and placed it onto his own finger.

"This doesn't mean things between us are fixed," I reminded him. "You are still going to have to work to gain back my complete trust."

Slipping the now empty box back into his pocket, he took ahold of both of my hands in his. "I know, and I'm going to work everyday to gain it back. We'll just take this one-day at a time. I promise."


End file.
